Tactics and tools for when you’re new to presenting and/or don’t know where to start with your presentations
This blog a resource for presenters — not pro-speakers, but real people who need to make presentations as part of their 'day job'.
I have to be honest, this blog only gets updated every month or so. If you want a bit more, sign up for the (almost) weekly newsletter instead called "TalkTactics".
Presenting is like gardening. When I plant something in my veg patch there are a lot of things that determine whether it grows (or grows well). There’s the quality of the plant (my presentation preparation and content); there’s how well I actually do the planting (my presentation delivery); there’s the quality of the soil (is …
Credibility as a presenter comes from how much your audience like you (Warmth) and how much they trust you (Competence). You need both.
A long time ago I wrote about what we can learn about presenting from Maya Angelou – mainly about the need and approaches to rehearsing. It’s time I updated to that. In particular I want to move on from that (fantastic) quote a little. In the more hardcore world of today your audience needs a …
How your room is set up makes a huge difference to how well your presentation is likely to go. Lots of it is obvious but some not…
So you’ve heard of “death by powerpoint” and you’ve all be shot at by the screen-full of bullet points on a slide. And you promised not to do it to your audiences – but you did. Why? Because knowing how to replace bullet points just doesn’t seem ‘do-able’. If the presentations you sit through are …
I’ve talked before about one of the best ways to start your presentation, so here’s the other bookend – the close of a presentation. Let’s talk about questions and let’s talk about applause. Your audience expects one of these at the end of your presentation and you might hope for the other. So I’m going …
Great delivery can’t save rubbish content. We often forget that there are three key parts to an outstanding presentation… it’s not just (or even mainly) about how well you present in the room
Because of the Corona Virus, lots of people are asking me for urgent help with their online presentations. I’ve split this post into two parts – general help about online presentations and how they’re different from in-the-room presentations and then some specific stuff about the “software de jour” to do that with – Zoom. Some …
Confession time: I’m an introvert. You’d not know it if you saw me on stage, of course, and I’ve recently been described as “a very social chatterbox, like me” but that misses the point of the real me… the me that my clients and audiences don’t see. My job pretty much requires me to be …
The StoryMaking System is the result of reading (in mind-numbing detail) over 400 peer-reviewed research papers, dozens of books, thousands of ours of observational research and blood sweat and tears!
It's the framework for designing a presentation which gives you the fastest way to getting something is (almost) guaranteed to work. It gives your audience what they need - and only what they need - to be impacted.
The key elements are:
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